http://democracyguy.typepad.com/democracy_guy_grassroots_/2005/10/sherrod_brown_r.html

The right's response to Katrina critism is developing into a "not time to fix blame" refrain.  Plenty of time to point fingers later, plenty of blame to go around.  Glenn Reynolds writes, in a developing spin line echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff on Meet The Press today...

"I think that all the efforts at politcal point-scoring now are misplaced. There's plenty of blame to go around, and plenty of opportunities to figure out how to do better in the future. Those are likely to get lost in the fog of name-calling."

I guess it doesn't matter how hard you try to find common ground, there are just some people who will polarize everything, managing to throw in the entire kitchen sink on every argument.  Case in point, HelenW, a commenter at my blog....

http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/8/25/113638/421

was so bizarre and off base, I had to write this diary to just say the following.

Abort.  Just abort.  This is insanity.

There are more pro-life Democrats out there than there are pro-Iraq war Democrats.  They are not evil.  They have a legitimate position that rather closely resembles Clinton's....abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.  

Just what we need is another ideological litmus test for Democrats, administered by single-issue idealogues.  

I repeat.  Abort.

Can anyone tell me why Howard Dean is in Armenia?

http://oneworld.blogsome.com/2005/08/19/howard-dean-in-armenia/

Junkets to Armenia paid for by Armenian American diasporan groups are nothing new for members of Congress, but the DNC chair?  What could he possibly be interested in there?   It strikes me as an enormous waste of the man's time, unless he's planning to run for something.

This is an earthquake.  From ONN...

"Gov. Bob Taft is expected to be charged this afternoon in Franklin County Municipal Court with four criminal misdemeanors for failing to disclose golf outings and possibly other favors. The charges are be outlined at a press conference this afternoon with Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien and Columbus City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. If convicted on the first-degree misdemeanor charges, Taft faces a maximum fine of $1,000 and up to six months in jail on each count."

My glee at the GOP collapse in Ohio reaching this zenith is tempered by a little humanity.  The Taft name has been the single most powerful name in Ohio politics for over a century.  I would imagine that the current governor may have destroyed that legacy, and it probably is killing him.  

And yet, gleeful I certainly shall be.  It seems strange to say that the indictment of the sitting governor is just the tip of the iceberg, but that's the sense I get.  

I predicted Hackett would lose, but geez....Hackett lost by only 4 points, about 3500 votes out of 112,000 cast.  As for the inevitable Ohio-vote-rig-scandal conspiracy theories...please restrain yourselves.  This was lost fair and square.

First, the district.  OH-02 is a Republican seat.  Rock.  Solid.  Portman's been winning the seat with over 70% of the vote.  The Republican who won her hotly contested primary, Jean Schmidt, received more votes than the votes cast for every Democrat in the Democratic primary combined.  There aren't enough Democrats in this district to elect a Democrat.  It's like running a white guy in Stephanie Tubbs Jones' district.  Throw in the fact that this is a low turnout special election, in AUGUST, and it is simply impossible to imagine any Democrat getting enough people to the polls to threaten, let alone win.